April 25th, 2008 at 10:35 am | posted by ONE.Partners
You may know that malaria kills more than a million people (not just children – people) a year –every 30 seconds a child in African dies – and costs African economies over $12 billion.
But there is a simple solution to this large problem – an insecticide-treated net. $10 covers the cost to purchase and distribute the net and educate on its use, and for a limited time, a generous sponsor of Nothing But Nets will send a bed net on your behalf when you sign up! Saving lives has never been easier.
To commemorate World Malaria Day on April 25th, we’ve created an interactive online game, Deliver the Net, www.NothingButNets.net/game that let’s you experience the distribution of bed nets and some of the obstacles we face on the ground.
Through the UN Foundation and our Nothing But Nets campaign we’ve already helped cover seven African nations, including Zimbabwe and Mali, and we have our sights set on more.
“In a video message for a World Malaria Day event at U.N. headquarters, Ban said the initiative will offer indoor spraying and bed nets treated with long-lasting insecticide “to all people at risk, especially women and children in Africa.” The video was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
It will also ensure that public health facilities have access to effective malaria treatment and diagnosis, that health workers are trained to deal with the disease, and that research into its eradication is encouraged, Ban said.
Ban said he wants these measures in place in just a few years. “The aim is to put a stop to malaria deaths by ensuring universal coverage by the end of 2010.”
The secretary-general said that several African countries “have made dramatic strides in malaria control, but the most affected nations remain off track to reach the goal of halting and reversing the incidence of the disease.”
“That is why today, together with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, I am putting forward a bold but achievable vision,” Ban said.”
April 24th, 2008 at 10:11 am | posted by ONE.Partners
Todd Jennings from PATH continues to send in daily updates about World Malaria Day from Zambia.
World Malaria Day was born Africa Malaria Day following a commitment by African leaders in 2001. The Abuja summit set benchmarks for malaria control and prevention by 44 African countries, including Zambia. Recognizing that the disease reaches beyond this continent, the commemoration is now known as World Malaria Day. This year’s slogan (Malaria, a disease without borders) and theme (United Against Malaria) demonstrate how connected we are in the 21st century. People travel more than ever and mosquitoes don’t respect borders, so it’s imperative that countries work together to fight malaria.
Yesterday, the First Lady of Zambia, Maureen Mwanawasa, gave a talk about HIV/AIDS and malaria, an interaction she described as the collision of hippos and elephants. Those with developing or compromised immune systems—children under five, pregnant mothers, the chronically ill—are most at risk of malaria.
World Malaria Day, the First Lady reminded us, is not a day to be depressed about the toll of the disease. Rather it’s a day to celebrate what’s possible. We have the means to prevent malaria at our disposal—treated bednets, house spraying, lifesaving drugs. All that’s left is for people to join together to kick malaria out of Zambia, Africa, and the world.
UPDATE: In this video clip, see the First Lady of Zambia deliver her malaria address:
-Todd Jennings, Advocacy Officer, Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA), a program at PATH, Lusaka, Zambia.
April 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 pm | posted by Virginia Simmons
Todd Jennings from PATH continues to send in daily updates about World Malaria Day from Zambia.
The impact of malaria goes beyond the chills and the sweating, the dizziness and even death. It devastates families, communities, economies. Take a world map showing where malaria is common and overlay it on one showing the world’s poorest regions: it’s the same really, a wide belt of suffering around the equator.
One figure heard often is that Africa loses more than 12 billion dollars each year due to malaria. I don’t know how that was calculated, but I do know that the disease shackles growth and development. If your child is sick from malaria, she isn’t attending school, and a parent must miss work to care for her. From a parasite delivered by a mosquito, a family bears a loss in education, work and income.
Peter Chintu will never forget January 13th, 1997. He came home from traveling to find his four-year-old son, Abraham, not feeling well. Peter knew it was serious so he slung his son on his back with fabric and bicycled to the hospital in Mazabuka, about seven miles away. In a few hours Abraham was dead.
At 45 years of age, Peter is now the elder statesman in the 2008 Zambia Race Against Malaria from Serenje Livingstone. He is committed to sharing his experience with others so they and their families will protect themselves from the disease. Peter can recite the measures by heart: sleep under a treated bednet every night, allow your home to be sprayed, seek immediate diagnosis and treatment if you have the symptoms of malaria (fever, chills, sweating, loss of appetite…) He sat down with me in Lusaka after today’s grueling 122-mile ride (only 300 miles to go!). In this audio clip, he describes the cruel intersection of malaria and poverty.
-Todd Jennings, Advocacy Officer, Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA), a program at PATH, Lusaka, Zambia. Photo credit: Jesper Lublinkhof.
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:01 pm | posted by ONE.Partners
Friday, April 25 is the first-ever World Malaria Day, commemorating the global effort to control malaria and reduce the toll it takes on individuals, families, and economies in endemic countries. Malaria is a top killer of children in Zambia, where I live and work, but the country is making progress against the disease by making proven malaria prevention and treatment methods available to the people who need them most.
A week of World Malaria Day events started today in Zambia, where a nationwide Prayer Night took place this evening in churches across the country. My wife, Anne Jennings, attended and photographed the vigil in Lusaka, where a candlelight procession and choral music filled the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the capital city’s largest church.
A 920-km cycling race also started today and the week holds many more events to raise awareness about malaria. Watch the ONE Blog and check my journal on path.org for more all this week.
-Todd Jennings, Advocacy Officer, Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA), a program at PATH, Lusaka, Zambia
March 27th, 2008 at 3:35 pm | posted by Josh Lozman
Throughout this year’s presidential campaign, the three remaining candidates have all discussed their plans to fight malaria. Malaria is the largest killer of children of under 5 in Africa. Each year, the disease claims the lives of more than 1 million people globally each year and makes between 300 and 500 million extremely ill.
Yesterday, Senator John McCain reiterated his commitment to establish the goal of eradicating malaria at a speech at the LA World Affairs Council. Senator McCain had previously announced this in an article in Foreign Affairs.
Several months ago, Senator Hillary Clinton announced a plan to eliminate deaths on the continent on Africa at a speech at Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church. She committed to spend $1 billion per year towards this goal.
Senator Barack Obama has committed to doubling funding for the President’s Malaria Initiative as well as lift a cap on the United States contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Malaria is a disease that we know how to stop. Bed nets and indoor spraying of houses with insecticides coupled with prophylactic and curative treatments are all inexpensive and highly effective ways to prevent transmission of the disease and prevent severe illness or death in those that do get. The fight against malaria is primed for an increased fight and ONE is pleased that the presidential candidates have given it so much attention. ONE will continue encouraging the candidates to discuss their commitments on malaria and tackle other critical global development challenges.
March 5th, 2008 at 2:11 pm | posted by Josh Lozman
Yesterday’s New York Times prominently featured an article describing the debate in the public health community about what are appropriate goals for the fight against malaria. Goals for fighting malaria vary between improving access to control and prevention measures and full eradication of the disease. Full eradication of the disease would mean that no person has the disease, but also that it exists nowhere, except as the New York Times notes, in a laboratory. This was last accomplished with smallpox when the last naturally occurring case of smallpox was recorded in 1977 in Somalia. Smallpox was certified eradicated in 1980.
The most recent round of discussions were sparked late last year when Bill and Melinda Gates called for a push towards eradication at a conference they held in Seattle. Despite the excitement created for such an initiative, the announcement enlivened debate among the scientific community about whether eradication is a realistic goal to set for the community and the potential disappointment of setting the goal and not reaching it. Smallpox had a unique set of credentials that made it a candidate for eradication, including that it could only be carried by humans rather than be primarily carried by mosquitoes in the case of malaria.
The past several years have seen a rapid increase in funding for fighting malaria. Spending from the United States, the Global Fund and World Bank on malaria from 2001 to 2003 was only $348 million. From 2004 to 2006, this number rose to just over $1 billion. The current version of the PEPFAR bill just recently agreed to in the House called for $5 billion in spending on malaria over the next 5 years from the United States alone. This would fund the United States’ proportionate share of the global estimates to achieve universal access to control and prevention for those living in endemic countries. Senators Clinton, McCain, and Obama have all committed to significantly ramp up the United States’ spending on malaria if elected president.
Though the debate about eradication versus control is one that is largely restricted to academic settings and concerns about setting realistic expectations, it is one that is likely to increasingly play out in the public discourse as the United States moves to spend more on fighting this disease.
February 28th, 2008 at 10:02 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
Late Tuesday night, bipartisan cooperation in the House Foreign Affairs Committee moved us one critical step closer to approving the 5-year expansion of the “President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief” or “PEPFAR.”
The legislation they passed yesterday, “The Lantos-Hyde US Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, TB, Malaria Act” would transition PEPFAR from an emergency response to a sustainable response program, and provide for expanded training for 140,000 new health care professionals and community care workers. The bill also strongly focuses on prevention and includes comprehensive efforts that place a special emphasis on women and on the underlying factors which make them vulnerable to HIV infection, including a focus on violence against women.
In all, the U.S. would provide lifesaving treatment for at least three million AIDS patients; prevent 12 million new infections; provide care for five million AIDS orphans; and train and support 140,000 new health professionals. The bill also provides $4 billion for the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis and $5 billion to fight malaria.
Although the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s action this week marks a critical momentum shift for PEPFAR’s reauthorization, the full House must continue to uphold this commitment to bipartisanship and pass the the bill (protecting all provisions) during a House floor vote.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:58 am | posted by Virginia Simmons
(Martin Edlund of Malaria No More joined President Bush’s on the Ghana portion of the president’s trip to Africa.)
It was a day of firsts for me. My first time meeting a sitting president. My first time racing through streets in a presidential motorcade. My first time seeing malaria education set to music.
President and Mrs. Bush made malaria a big focus of their stop in Ghana, where they were joined by American Idol Winner Jordin Sparks and Malaria No More. Sparks opened a noontime event at the U.S. Embassy with a Super Bowl-sized rendition of the national anthem that made the speakers whimper and moved patriotic listeners to tears.
President Bush took the mic to praise American Idol for raising $17 million for malaria during last year’s Idol Gives Back charity special and share some exciting news:
This spring, Fox and American Idol will once again appeal to viewers to help defeat malaria. On April 9th, the show will raise money to fight malaria in Africa and support other worthy causes in the second round of “Idol Gives Back.” Laura and I hope, and Jordin hopes, that America’s generosity will still pour forth, and we ask our fellow citizens to contribute to this worthy cause. (Applause.)
(Read the full transcript here, including the President’s shout out to Malaria No More.)
It was a short event – half hour all told - but plenty long for us to sweat through our suits in the soupy afternoon heat. “This reminds me of what it’s like to campaign in Texas in August,” quipped a glistening Commander in Chief. Still, he took the time to press the flesh with the hodge-podge audience of scruffy PeaceCorps volunteers, Ghanaian women in traditional dress, and Idol-loving tweens.
Lunch was served on the Embassy lawn flanked by mini-golf versions of the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Washington Monument while the bar offered bottles of Schweppes tonic in a subtle (okay, probably unintended) homage to the days when the quinine in tonic was used to ward off malaria.
From there, we raced off to Maamobi Polyclinic on the outskirts of Accra where Jordin and Mrs. Bush were greeted by a traditional durbar—a Ghanaian community gathering complete with song, dance, and umbrella-wielding day-glo chiefs.
Jordin and Mrs. Bush did a bed net demonstration and kids sang a malaria song withwith mosquito-wing choreography. It’s what happens when well-intentioned public health professionals try their hand at pop song. Sample lyrics:
From home to home
From school to school
Children are saying
Give us treated bednets
To keep us protected
But if malaria attacks
For lack of protection
Give us early treatment
To save our lives
Somewhere Simon Cowell is scowling fiercely. For my part, I’ll stick with Jordin’s single “Tattoo” which I’m rocking on my (Product)Red iPod as I write this.
February 20th, 2008 at 9:41 am | posted by Martin.Edlund
American Idol winner Jordin Sparks is sitting on the concrete floor of the airport here in Accra, Ghana thumbing away at her iPhone when she’s approached for her first autograph. “Of course,” she says, flashing the brillian smile that helped her to win over millions of Idol voters. She’s delighted and a bit surprised to be recognized so far from home.
Jordin has come to Ghana with Malaria No More to participate in the President’s trip to Africa and learn more about malaria, a disease which kills an estimated 900,000 Africans each year, mostly children and pregnant mothers.
Last year’s Idol Gives Back charity special raised $75 million for charities in American and Africa, including $17 million to fight malaria. Malaria No More used part of that money to protect 2 million moms and kids with insecticide treated bed nets in Angola, Madagascar, Mali, Uganda, and Zambia. The President and Mrs. Bush appeared on last year’s Idol Gives Back to thank viewers for their support. Now Jordin’s here to return the favor.
Today, she’ll appear alongside the First Couple at a series of events highlighting the US President’s Malaria Initiative, a $1.2 billion five-year program operating in 15 African countries and is just getting underway here in Ghana. She’ll do a bed net demonstration alongside Mrs. Bush at a malaria clinic on the impoverished fringes of Accra this afternoon. On the drive back from the rehearsal yesterday, our photographer, a cheery Ghanaian named Jeff, said that households in the area are stricken with 1 malaria case every month on average, a consequence of their windowless cinderblock homes and lack of bed nets. Malaria accounts for 22% of deaths among children under five here in Ghana and 44% of health clinic visits.
Tomorrow, we’ll head out into the field with a USAID rep named Bethanne to see the impact of malaria on rural communities and get a look at what they’re doing to fight back. Stay tuned. And if you’d like to help make a different, donate $10 for a bed net at www.MalariaNoMore.org.
-Martin Edlund, Communications Director, Malaria No More
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